This is a fashionable apartment or, since I have placed it in London, a fashionable flat, which might have existed towards the latter half of the 1970s.

Property in London was, and still is, expensive and this is a large living area and so the flat would be a relatively upmarket one, perhaps in a nice area of the city. The furnishings I have tried to make relevant to the period and to the sort of ideas there were in vogue at that time.

The design of the suite is one that I remember seeing at the time and which impressed me, although it would be difficult to find a similar one today. It comes with a three-seat and a two-seat sofa, a chair and a matching coffee table. You will see that, in common with today, one of the occupants has removed their shoes and kicked them under the table!

The small pictures either side of curtains are reminiscent of the sort of images that were appearing at that time and owe much to the work of the American artist Andy Warhol. Pictures, as a way of decoration, were beginning to appear in quantity and were often grouped in a simple way. This is particularly true where, as in this case, the images all share a common theme.

The layout of the room, with the arrangement of the sofas facing the television, is very reminiscent of the way that rooms are constructed today and follows the grouping of furniture that took place in the 1960s. A decade earlier and the furnishings would have been laid out very differently during the 1950s when television was only beginning and most people, at least in Britain, listened to the radio.

The carpet on the floor deadens the sounds and provides insulation as well as making the room look and feel cosy. The curtains have a bold print which would not look out of place today. Something else which has not changed much are the lights, both the ceiling and the stand-alone spotlights. There is a mains powered radio on the bookcase on the left and that, too, would not look out of place today.

The image above is a very small one and only part of the room, the whole can be seen much clearer on my Flickr page, a link to which is provided in the next paragraph.

If you wish, you can also see larger versions of this and, of course, my other designs and patterns for interiors on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

Cushions provide colour, warmth and a splash of interest to a room but they are also important bringers of atmosphere and character.

The type of cushions that you use must say something important about the way that you look at life and the type of room that you want your visitors to see. I always felt that cushions in particular should be a little unusual since it is often the one place in a modern house where you can express yourself without too much fear.

These cushions use a motif which was inspired by mid-century designs and they also use mid-century colours and yet the design, the look and the feeling that they create is modern and up-to-the-minute. Unfortunately these cushions are not yet available on Redbubble although in the next month or so they should be ready to purchase. What these cushions do, or at least try to do, is to draw the visitor’s eye to the furniture and thus into the room and also create within the visitor a sense of interest.

You can, should you wish, also see larger versions of this and my other work on my Flickr page which is here.

For most people the past is something to look back on but the past can also provide us with inspiration for modern and up-to-the-minute design.

This pattern is similar in inspiration to patterns that were produced mid-century and, indeed, the colours used are those that would have been found in the mid-century palette. I have to admit to rather liking this pattern and its colours and in particular I like the effect of the design on cushions on the sofa that you see above. The set is an apartment building but the cushions would look equally good arranged on furniture in an ultra modern room or, of course, a mid-century themed room.

You can, should you wish, also see larger versions of this and my other work on my Flickr page which is here.

Bedrooms these days tend to be light, either painted white or light grey and then with detailed splashes of colour scattered throughout the room.

I don’t have a problem with this but I always find these rooms rather empty and museum-like. Obviously this is a deliberate effect created often in living areas where it is desired to make a room look light and airy and where it is not expected that the house owner will spend a lot of time. However, where this scheme falls down, I believe, is in the bedroom. Here, although the house owner is asleep, the settings need to be restful and to create an atmosphere that is conducive to sleep rather than a room where you sit and read.

For this reason, the room that I am showing has a mid-century inspired wallpaper which is both rich and comfortable, creating an atmosphere which I like to think is conducive to helping with a good night sleep. This is not, it has to be said, a room for sitting and reading or for daylight pursuits and I think that the colours and the wallpaper make this quite clear.

I did not realise how good this room would look until I was able to produce the 3D image but now that I have done so I am more than satisfied with the result.

You can, should you wish, also see larger versions of this and my other work on my Flickr page which is here.

The mid-century in the UK saw a lot of fabrics being produced with designs that were based seemingly on almost random looking shapes and forms.

This was a trend that produced some very distinctive looking fabrics and wallpapers and, along with the use of appropriate colours, tends to mark patterns as being mid-century.

This design was made in code with Processing and was intended from the outset as a fabric pattern. It uses the type of shapes that were commonly used and paired with a dark background fabric it makes an ideal material. The set used is a very basic curtain set that was made some time back and which, to be honest, is as good as any other set for showcasing curtain material. The pattern looks an awkward one when seen as a swatch but comes alive when used as material with the other shapes forming a division across the curtain which contrast in well with the shape and colour of the lower forms.

The code is rather long and a little scrappy but I include it below in case it helps anyone.

You can also see larger versions of this and our other work on our Flickr page which is here.

The 1970s was like the 1960s only more so; that is it embodied the excitement and stimulation of the 1960s but took it to even greater extremes.

For the ordinary householder this meant a good variety of choice in patterns and colours for wallcoverings. The pattern today is a simple one but one which has an unusual look at the scale shown. This was a particular feature of 1970s wallpaper where great care was taken to give the maximum impact that the pattern could produce.

Once again the colouring follows the British Standard although the setting is a different one. This is a new version of an old room which began life as the dining room of the 1960s house.

You can also see larger versions of this and our other work on our Flickr page which is here.

One of the nice things about the mid-century was the amount of experimentation that went on to produce and refine different designs and patterns.

I am still having problems with my elbow which prevents me from drawing although it does not, thankfully, prevent me from using the computer and so, with the advent of Filter Forge 5, I have been experimenting again with the filters.

This pattern was made using the Colourful flakes filter byCTextures and was designed as wallpaper for use in the kitchen. The set used is my 1950s kitchen set and the paper is shown in both light and dark styles to show the difference between the two.

During the mid-century period in the UK there were a lot of more unusual styles that appeared and I feel that this, together with its mid-century colouring, would have fitted in well. It is a busy paper with plenty going on which I think looks well in a kitchen designed very much for work.

You can also see larger versions of this and our other work on our Flickr page which is here.